


Snippet for feilongfan

by Amsel



Series: When you notice a cat.. [4]
Category: The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 23:41:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amsel/pseuds/Amsel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Catching rats and eating them, too</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snippet for feilongfan

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of my snippets from the fic that never was. I wrote it even before I had written the main part. But as it ended up a bit cracky, and the tone of the main story was more somber, I left it out. 
> 
> But here it is, at long last, because feilongfan asked for it...
> 
> Takes place just the first night on their flight from the Seal People.

It’s so fast, Marcus hardly sees it. 

He’s wet, miserable, his leg is aching, his head hurts from the blow the Seal warrior gave him. He’s been hunched against the bracken, trying to pretend he is warm enough. It’s all getting a bit much. 

Esca is standing with the horses, stroking them as he loosens the bridles and allows them to find forage, whispering sweet nothings in their ears. Marcus hadn’t even managed that much. 

But as Esca turns towards him, he suddenly freezes, then jumps, his hand out and into the deep bracken.

It comes out a minute later, holding a rat. 

A rat, of all things. 

A second later, he has broken its neck, and looks over at Marcus, a triumphant grin all over his face. 

Marcus just stares, completely taken aback. He has literally never seen anybody either move that fast, or kill a rat in such a manner. 

Esca carries the carcass over and kneels before him. He looks up, and Marcus is unsure what he wants. The rat is lying there like an offering between them. 

“Dinner,” Esca announces with a happy grin.

“A rat?” Marcus manages to choke. 

“I can’t hunt a boar, Marcus,” Esca says comfortably. “No fire, we might be seen,” he picks the limp corpse up again and offers it to him. “First taste?”

“With the pelt?” Marcus asks, his voice going up.

Esca lowers the rat, looking irritated. He pulls out a small knife, and skins the animal quickly. It looks even less appealing now than it was before.

“I am not eating that,” Marcus says firmly, swallowing. “I am not a savage,”

“Then die a Roman,” Esca says coldly.

He picks up the rat, and brings it to his mouth without hesitation, biting into the belly and pulling up, chewing and swallowing. 

Marcus swallows bile. Esca holds the rat steady, pulls at the intestines, and then bites down and knocks something away to the ground before holding out the bloody carcass again.

“Eat. You lost a lot of blood. You need your strength,”

Marcus hesitatingly takes the thing. It’s unpleasant and squishy, and he slowly takes a bite. He nearly gags and throws up.  
 _Just an uncooked dormouse_ , he tries to tell himself. 

He swallows without chewing, and after another bite where a piece of flesh is pulled up along a sinew in the most unpleasant way possible, hands it back. Esca eagerly takes it.

“Do you want more?” he asks.  
Marcus can only shake his head. And then watches in complete befuddlement as Esca eats the rat. 

Completely. 

He even chews down the tail. 

“Are you part ferret?” he asks jokingly. 

“Cat,” Esca says briefly, flashing him a quick smile and then hoiking out a piece of gristle stuck in a tooth, which he flicks into the bracken. 

Marcus leans back, his front slowly starting to warm. 

“I have never seen anybody do that before,” he says softly.

“Eat a rat?” Esca asks absently. “I did it all the time, remember?”

He is staring at the bracken again. He freezes and jumps a second time, but comes up empty-handed and curses quietly.

Marcus is appalled. “No! When did you catch rats? Didn’t you get enough to eat?”

Did Stephanos starve him? But no, the two had got on rather well, hadn’t they? 

“Oh, yes, but lentil stew gets boring after a while,” Esca says, sighs, and curls up next to Marcus.

It’s the first time they have been this close since that disastrous fight at the ridge. 

Marcus tries to remember when they last had lentil stew at Uncle Aquila’s. Once or twice, when both had been nostalgic for the taste, and Uncle Aquila had asked Stephanos to make it especially. But not usually. Uncle Aquila liked a varied diet, and Stephanos made a lot of dishes, and rarely repeated himself in a month. 

Puzzled, he hunches forward a bit, and Esca curls closer, lays his head on his shoulder, and falls asleep. 

Marcus has been in awe of his slave during the entire journey for this very reason. Esca can fall asleep anywhere. 

It’s cold and the ground is hard and slightly damp. They have an entire clan chasing them and have to cross the mountains before they get even near the Wall, and civilization. He is wounded, and a nervous wreck. And Esca curls up to sleep, after chasing down and eating a rat. 

He shakes his head with a slight grin, then moves to get them both more comfortable. Esca’s unruly mop of hair lands on his chest, and it is minutes before he starts snoring very gently. 

It’s a soft snore, not annoying, and reminds Marcus of a cat’s purr. 

He misses Glaucullus desperately, and it’s that which makes him pet the heavy head. And freezes when Esca bucks into his hand, snore intensifying. He doesn’t wake up. 

Marcus gently passes his hand through the hair, and scratches his neck. The snore takes on the rhythm of his rubbing hand, Marcus realises. 

Chased by the purrs he slips into dreams.


End file.
